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In October, 2008 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh received a National Leadership Demonstration Grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to digitally preserve over 500,000 pages of historic materials related to Pittsburgh's iron and steel industry and to make them available to the public. Through this collection, we strive to preserve the culture, heritage and knowledge of our region's industrial past, while enhancing the public's understanding of what made Pittsburgh the "Workshop of the World"

Pittsburgh Iron & Steel Heritage Collection is a digital collection of books, journals, photographs, trade catalogs, and other items related to the iron and steel industry in Western Pennsylvania. Dating as far back as the 1800s, much of the collection is too fragile to handle. By saving Pittsburgh's steel and iron legacy materials in a digital format, the library can make them accessible locally and nationally to students and historians. A selection of the material has been added to Flickr, to enable customers to view, share, and contribute to the collection.

The IMLS grant has permitted Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to demonstrate how a public library can use current technology to provide access to and to generate excitement about a part of the Library's heritage collection. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh provided resources in staff time, cash expenditures, and overhead to match the IMLS grant. Main Library Services staff as well as those from Information Technology, Technical Services, and Communications and Creative Services participated in the successful completion of this project.